Heroes of Science and Fiction News

Tumori Tribes are here!

Hi everybody, great news today! We just released the next major content update for Heroes of Science and Fiction with both a new factions and a new campaign!
We hope you'll enjoy the new content and all the included improvements!

Trailer: [previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Tumori Tribes

Play as an ancient race of intelligent parasitic aliens that posess different hosts!

7 units, each with its upgraded version
Warmachine: the Goo Spitter
13 Commanders
Unique base buildings (including item storage!), siege battle map and base music theme
Biomacer faction skill

Sovereign Fleet Campaign

Follow Annika Finch, a famous young Sovereign captain on her journey and see some of the dark secrets of the Siren System finally uncovered!

4 levels, 8 intro and outro screens
2 new music themes
(Hopefully not a spoiler) Encounter both your old enemies and the Tumori Tribes!

Content and features

New skirmish maps - Lost Connection and One Way Out
Spawner buildings on the exploration map for each faction
Scrapyard workshop sells different warmachines
One-way teleports
Encyclopedia with all commanders and units organized by faction
Improved calendar panel layout with colored phase text and custom icons for different cycle events
Icons of different layouts in map generator
Added commander bio to commander tooltips in scenario configuration and encyclopedia
Academy upgrade that allows to research abilities can now be used repeatedly but with increasing cost
New music jingles for map win/loss screen ♫
New music theme for Orbit, improved music crossfades, fixed a couple of cases of volume jumps, for example after battle ♫
Improvements in various sound effects: item pickups, Cannon explosion, Sawty jump, crystal biome ambience, Worm underground movement, a few healing effects, Show Resources and Treasures
Editor: New event action for controlling commander orientation
Editor: New event action, configurable delay/wait
Editor: Implemented a manipulate-commanders command to disable tracking of a commander as must-stay-alive in victory conditions
Editor: New reward for defeating selected neutral army: a fusion core
Editor: Automatic synchronization of colors of connected teleports
Editor: Spawners can be configured to match the faction of a base (as the player can select the faction when starting the map)

Fixes

- Updated Unity to 2020.3.49f1 with a fix of the recently discovered security vulnerability, fixed what got broken by this upgrade
- Hotfixed any human in hotseat mode getting defeated caused the dialog to force return to main menu
- Fixed unit models with multiple materials not correctly flashing white when hit
- Fixed 6-unit armies sometimes spawning in different order than the order of units in the army
- Fixed a few issues with difficulty settings not correctly carried over between campaign maps
- Fixed bases remembered in fog of war had different name than the actual base at their position
- Fixed missing unit icon on discovered neutral armies, fixed inconsistency in tooltips of discovered neutral armies
- Fixed AI sometimes attacking dead units
- Fixed Mysterious Wanderers/Traveling Merchants could decide to block a bridge
- Fixed tooltips on consumables in hero action selector weren't taking in account reordering of these items by availability and sometimes showing tooltip for the wrong item
- Fixed resource collectors could spawn over pickable resources during cycle event
- Fixed skills forgotten at an altar of clean slate not available to be learned again
- Fixed hacked and hypnotized status effects
- Fixed some typos and minor issues in texts

[h3]Roadmap[/h3]
Here's an updated roadmap for the rest of Early Access - we're getting there! :)

[p]As always, thanks to everybody who helped us test the build before release and special thanks to the community translators! If you'd like to join the community, we'll be happy to have you on our Discord server: [/p][p]

[/p]

History of the Tumori Tribes

Of alien parasites and the history of fear.

"Siren System natives. Hostile, creepy, sort of parasitical body snatchers. But as far as I know, they avoid human hosts."
(Sovereign Fleet Captain Annika Finch)

"Autopsy of sentient alien lifeforms is strictly forbidden by the UNSS law. But 'nullo actore, nullus iudex' or 'Where there is no plaintiff, there is no judge'... And the Siren System is truly a land of no judges. So when the Research Division finished the first batch of autopsies, two things became clear: the Tumori are parasites that can possess hosts from the regnum Plantae et Animalia without difficulties. And athough they are undoubtedly able to enter, live in, and control even Hesperidian, human, or Fossorian hosts, they have done so only in a few documented cases, which makes these 'aliens' quite special. Gergielarh, lower your hands. I already know what you want to ask. 'Professor Brown 9B, what about the first wave of UNSS settlers and the lost colonies?' Truly wonderful … and stupid is the mind of humans. Especially university students! As a doctor and a Hesperidian scientist, I advise you imbeciles, do not believe in myths unless you witness them with your own eyes!"
(Doctor Thomas Brown 9B)

"Gross buggers! I'm adding them to my "to burn" list."
(Hierarch of the Spitfire Cult of the Children of the Source)

So let's begin with a boring, but necessary biology lesson. If we compare the Tumori to humans, we can imagine the swarm as a brain, the swarm individuals as brain cells and neural tissue, and the host as the rest of the body. A swarm consists of many small flying individuals. Though the individuals alone are expendable, the swarm must keep their number as high as possible because the more individuals the swarm has, the more intelligent it is, and the bigger host it can control. Simple, right? And now to the interesting part. If you go to war, I expect you will train your body to raise your fitness. Most certainly, you will cover your body with armor, and undoubtedly, you will reach for equipment and weapons to boost your combat effectiveness. A Tumori swarm will just change its host to a monster, bulging with huge muscles, covered by thick scales, and with a mouth full of dagger-sharp fangs. And when the war is over? No problem! The swarm will slip to a host more suitable for peaceful life. Sometimes it is not so bad to be an alien parasite.

But sometimes, it truly sucks. Why? Because everyone fears that you will steal their body. No one understands your language, because your communication is based on chemical exchange. And there is a whole order of fanatical robots that want to exterminate your entire species. But to explain the last part, we must take a trip to the foggy depths of ancient history.

The Tumori Tribes never held any written records of any sort; therefore, the history and the origin of tribesmen are engulfed in a mist of myths and uncertainty. Our only source of ancient knowledge comes from the libraries of Children of the Source, and the robotic warriors are not renowned for their willingness to share.

All we know with a fair level of certainty is that the Tumori Tribes emerged shortly after the end of the Holy War, the conflict responsible for the fall of the Primals' civilization by the blades and fires of the Children of The Source. The tribesmen recognize the Primals as an ancestral civilization, just as European kingdoms of the Dark Ages built their culture on the legacy of the Roman Empire. Although Tumori “inherited” many technological marvels collected from the ashes of Primals' cities, the beginnings of their new civilization were complicated. The Holy War that destroyed the Primals also nearly annihilated the Children of the Source, but the remnants of the order considered the Tumori as direct successors of the Primals; therefore, they were considered ideal candidates for the same fate the order had orchestrated for the Primals. Nevertheless, the military might of the Children was so weakened that the conflict continued throughout the centuries and to this very day. After the recent defeat of the last crusade, the Children of the Source found themselves only a few steps away from total annihilation. The Siren System was about to fall into the hands of Tumori. But then the Outworlders showed up and shuffled the cards again.

The Tumori fought valiantly, but the humans and Fossorians pushed the tribesmen back to deep forests and to border territories. Many acts of senseless violence were committed by both sides, but the conflict has become frozen as the Outworlders factions fall deep into internal conflicts, and the idea of understanding or even cooperation has never seemed more ludicrous. Then the Rogue Traffickers of the Sovereigns put their fears and prejudice aside and took their chance, and to their own amazement discovered two things: First, the Tumori are far from bloodthirsty savages described by the UNSS propaganda machinery, and second, trade is not only possible, but also very profitable. Though motivated by the mirage of wealth, the Rogue Traffickers absentmindedly lay down the groundwork for the bridge that could one day connect the most foreign civilizations and bring the centuries of war to their end.

Look how quickly we reached the present days! The brevity of this introduction truly underlines how little we know, yet still, we have just entered a unique point in history, a time when we can follow the example of the Rogue Traffickers, put aside the prejudice, and learn more about our alien neighbors. Therefore, I would like to wrap up this introduction with a quote from the father of modern xenobiology:

"Even if our hearts are prone to draw quick conclusions, our intellect should hold our hands away from any big red buttons or any radical and irreversible “solutions” wired up to those buttons. When Tumori decided to reject human hosts, they made the first step; now it's up to us to make the second."

(Professor Robert Zane, former dean of the Faculty of Xenobiology at the University of Europa, better known as “That Nutter who lives in the Forrest”. )

Heroes of Science and Fiction - The Psyker Update is Live!

[p]Hi everybody, we're happy to announce that we just released the next major content update for Heroes of Science and Fiction! The main focus is on the new Psyker skill and the PSY combat abilities it brings, but there are also new maps, events and the usual round of improvements and bugfixes.
[/p][p]In the meantime, most of the team has been already working on the next big expansion, which will bring Tumori Tribes (working title: Hive Mind) as the 5th playable faction and the next campaign/storyline, so this is not even the biggest update this fall!
[/p]

[h2]Psyker Skill and PSY Abilities[/h2]
[p]A new skill with 13 combat abilities for your commanders, all about manipulating your and your opponent's units in different ways. This also includes faculties at academies at all bases.

[/p]
[h2]New day night cycle rules[/h2]
[p]These bring more variety to what happens on the map and some come with active events at the start of the cycle!

Eclipse - night during the whole cycle
Cerebral clarity - more XP from battles
Each faction gets their own festival with a few different bonuses
Dead rising - some neutral armies respawn
Rain of resources: some of the treasures on the map get replenished. Can only happen once per map.
Workers strike: everybody loses ownership of some of their resource-generating buildings. Can only happen once per map.
Resource collectors - these creatures are hungry for resources and will appear around some of the mines

[h2]New interactive objects[/h2]

Escape module - contains various treasures
Traveling merchant - if you catch him, you'll be able to trade for the best prices
Mysterious wanderer - if you catch him, you'll get to improve one of your attributes

[h2]Content, features and improvements[/h2]

New skirmish maps: Blue Border & Sudden Death
Map generator with more variety, configuration options and various improvements
5 new loading tips
Increased size of tooltips and some panels in large UI mode, fixed a couple of layout issues on the Steam Deck
Added info about remaining force field HP to force fields status effect tooltip in unit info card
Implemented a custom effect for cloned units in unit order panel
Added hint about "unequipping items by right clicking" to item tooltips
Enemy commanders on the minimap are now better highlighted
\[EDITOR] New environment assets and brushes for Orbit
\[EDITOR] When running a playtest from map editor, there is now a way to go straight back to the map editor with a button it the top left corner of the screen
\[EDITOR] Re-enabled neutral faction as an option for level-based random units in editor

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

Fixed orbit not uncovered when starting a playtest from map editor
Fixed army tooltips not taking into account modified army counts when showing exact or iron-mole army sizes
Fixed stack can be healed over max HP when attacking with AOE on multiple stacks with walking rations
Fixed consumables highlight effect rendered under roads and cliffs
Fixed random units could sometimes choose fewer units than slots and end up with 0 unit count
Fixed base UI erroring out after putting a unit into the gateway 'send to outpost' slot, closing the base and opening it again
Fixed units from a defeated army showing that some have been saved by the renewed spirit skill
Fixed custom unit hire buttons at UNSS bases sometimes not available when they should be thanks to Radiant discount
Fixed tutorial text animation breaking with very high frame rates
Fixed map completion not saved to player profile for scenarios that you win from a map event
Fixed typing w-h-a-c-k in main menu wasn't much fun
A few fixes in different campaign levels
Fixed a few typos

[p]Last but not least, thanks to everybody who helped us test the build before release and special thanks to the community translators! If you'd like to join the community, we'll be happy to have you on our Discord server: [/p][p]

[/p]

Silence of the Siren renames to Heroes of Science and Fiction to pull in more HoMM fans

Heroes of Science and Fiction is the new name for Silence of the Siren from Oxymoron Games, as they try to pull in more fans of Heroes of Might and Magic.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/07/silence-of-the-siren-renames-to-heroes-of-science-and-fiction-to-pull-in-more-homm-fans/

Map editor, random maps, workshop and...HoSaF?

[p]Hi everybody, we have some big news today: the next major update is out, with the Map Editor & Workshop, a beta version of the much requested Random Map Generator, new maps, units and features![/p][p][/p][p]To address the elephant in the room first though, your eyes are not misleading you - after carefully considering this step for months, we decided to change the name of the game from Silence of the Siren to the long-term working title, Heroes of Science and Fiction. You're no doubt curious why, so here are the main reasons:[/p]

[p]It was really easy to mix up the name with other games in the genre, and we saw too many cases of for example Youtubers struggling to remember the name[/p]
[p]The new name should make it much more obvious to HoMM fans that this game is in the same genre as the beloved classic, which is really important when players see it on any list on Steam and decide whether to have a closer look. [/p]

[p][/p][p]And what happens to 'Silence of the Siren'? The name lives on as the name of the campaign/storyline of Heroes of Science and Fiction![/p][p][/p][p]Now, back to the update itself - let's have a look at all that's included![/p][p][/p][h3]Map Editor[/h3]

[p]The Map Editor we used to create all the maps in the game (there's an official Steam Guide)![/p]
[p]A powerful Event/Scripting Editor battle-tested by creating the different campaigns (there's also a Steam Guide for this part of the editor)[/p]
[p]A simple Steam Workshop integration so you can share your maps directly from the Editor[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Content[/h3]

[p]A new planet with a 6-phase day-night cycle[/p]
[p]7 new maps (plus some older maps can now be found on the new planet). New maps are marked with a 'new' icon for your convenience! :) This includes the map from the Next Fest Demo 2024 and an even older demo map uploaded as an example to the Workshop![/p]

[p][/p]

[p]New neutral units: Luminovores, self-destructing F1-Crackers and Slugtors and Malarions as a vanguard of the Tumori Tribes faction. [/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][h3]More new features and improvements[/h3]

[p]BETA version of the Map Generator that can create simple maps for up to 4 players (you can find it under Custom Scenarios -> Generate Map)[/p]
[p]Random commander selection for scenarios and skirmish[/p]
[p]Statistics for the victory screen with army strength graph[/p]
[p]Eyeball tower building with exploration statistics[/p]
[p]New commander list UI[/p]

[p][/p]

[p]Added error messages to main menu in case of errors after map load[/p]
[p]Neutral armies from other factions will sometimes offer to join the commander[/p]
[p]Tooltip for datascrolls shows the details of the skill you can learn from them[/p]
[p]Added custom tooltip text for friendly buildings that can't be taken over, fixed friendly bases showing the eye cursor[/p]
[p]Commander action selector now shows usable consumables first[/p]
[p]Limited-range (run-and-gun) units now also show a specific icon above their portraits in the unit order panel in battles[/p]
[p]Added a 'dismiss units' button also to dialog panel with armies used for outposts and defended mines[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Game balance tweaks[/h3]

[p]UNSS balancing pass (lowered trooper AoE damage, lowered chain lightning damage for consecutive hits, shield is more expensive)[/p]
[p]Bloodlust skill can now only be used once per round and 1-3 times per battle[/p]
[p]Engineer skill replenishes more EP (+10 +20 +30 instead of +5 +10 +15)[/p]
[p]Scout skill replenishes +10 +20 +30 MP according to skill level instead of always +30[/p][h3][/h3]

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

[p]Fixed cancelling special attacks of units didn't play a smooth transition back to idle[/p]
[p]Fixed only one of the not-selected skills in level up dialog could be shown again during the next level up[/p]
[p]Fixed hero 'can move' property and movement bar in right panel not refreshed after activation from events[/p]
[p]Disabled handling of submit events from gamepads as they might have caused random errors at bases[/p]
[p]Fix AI cannot go through building zone if it can't afford to build anything[/p]
[p]Fix day/night cycle doesn't affect units in garrisons and bases[/p]
[p]Fix Casting exploration ability near map border causes error[/p]
[p]Fix field promoted units switch to not-dead basic version when killed[/p]
[p]Fixed war machine hire custom panel was showing animated unit even when its building wasn't built yet[/p]
[p]Fixed Schließen in German localization not shown correctly as SCHLIESSEN when rendered in uppercase[/p]
[p]Fixed camera not following moving AI commanders to their map layer[/p]
[p]Added black cover behind neutral army join panel so the player can't open hero card behind it and break the armies and UI[/p]
[p]Fixed slots of the neutral army in neutral army join dialog could get a activated for unit placement by splitting one of your stacks or dropping a unit by right clicking twice to one of your army slots[/p]
[p]Fixed difficulty of previous campaign level applied to next campaign level before selecting difficulty in the UI, causing wrong neutral unit numbers; the UI now automatically selects difficulty from previous map[/p]
[p]Fixed dismissing units from their info panel opened from hero card wasn't updating armies in hero list[/p]
[p]Fixed Plant Mammas could spawn multiple babies on the same hex at start of the battle[/p]

[p][/p][p]We hope you will enjoy this new version and as always, let us know if you come across any issues or have any feedback to share. Also, we'll be looking forward to see all the different ideas you will come up with in your own maps![/p][p][/p][p]And, last but not least, here's an updated roadmap for the road to full release:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]